Man Caught with 2,500 Panfish in His Possession Gets Fined $24,000

Stanley Paalksnis isn’t the smartest guy in the world. The 74-year-old Wisconsin man didn’t just exceed his daily limits on bluegills, perch and crappies, he broke those limits dozens of times over, catching over 2,500 panfish in total.

He is now facing $24,683 in fines for his ridiculous fish possessions, which included 2,066 bluegills, 418 perch and 88 crappies that authorities discovered in his boat and house. The limit for each of those fish is 50.

This isn’t Paalksnis’s first brush with the authorities. Game wardens caught him with 47 bluegills in 2015 when the daily limit was only 25. Apparently he wanted to prove he could blow that breach of the daily limit out of the water.

You’re probably asking yourself, “why would anyone need 2,500 panfish so badly they’re willing to risk an insane fine?” Well, Paalksnis has an gave an explanation that just might make you understand – but not really, it’s completely insane – why he did what he did.

He was planning on selling bags of fish for $5 in Chicago. Okay, now that makes perfect sense.

Prosecutors agreed to ask a LaCrosse County Circuit judge to fine Paalksnis $10,000, revoke his fishing privileges for the next 12 years and that he have his 15-foot taken away from him.

Paalksnis, who will be sentenced at a later date, has had multiple brushes with the law that resulted in citations from 1989 to 2011 for going over limits. We’d say he’ll probably never fish again, but it doesn’t exactly sound like he’s worried about doing anything legally.